One thing must be true, Paul McKenzie never quits and continues his celtic punk legends The Real McKenzies with so many line-up changes, sudden and less sudden and here is the new album out with Fat Wreck Chords. I must admit that I have never been a great fan of celtic punk and all that folk punk influenced music but I must also admit that this band is funny as hell to see live and raise some hell and drink something to their songs and music. This time, they bring 12 songs that continue in the vein of their previous couple of albums, meaning melodic punk with celtic punk, topped with recognizable Paul’ s voice and some really nice harmonies in choruses and backing vocals, some really great songs and some boring and not really good songs. The ones that I found great are My Heart’s in the Highlands, The Green Hills of Tyrol and Swansea Town with guest performance by Brenna Reid. Nothing special but okay in all.
I was never a fan of that 77 and old school UK punk rock, but this band is something special. It was always a feeling in me that these bastards did not belong anywhere, not even in punk clichees, yet they embraced punk as a meaning of their music expression. This documentary shows linear history of these guys, with interviews and words of wisdom by the man himself singer Animal, the only original member in current line-up, but also original guitarist Magoo, bass player Winston and drummer PJ with help of many scene contemporaries and friends like Rat Scabies of The Damned or Stewart Copeland from Police. Like in any other docu, this shows partly interviews, partly archive footage and live action, but also reaches to band’s try to be new Duran Duran and that failed pop album, which by the way contains some really great songs in my humble opinion. There is no pathetic, no whining about good old times and stuff like that, this band was never about that, this is inspiring docu which shows you why you are still punk after all these years. Go see this one.
When I listened to the singles that announced this album, I sensed that it could be something great. I was wrong, it is fantastic! Santa Cruz, California’s legendary skate punks released their fourth full length album and it contains 13 songs of which one is an instrumental intro and I just can’t decide which one is better. This is a lesson in melodic hardcore punk. Fast and simple, with superb vocal and backing vocal harmonies, great emotional lyrics and songs you wished you have written them yourself. Some guitar parts sound almost like they are tuned to Swedish Gothenburg death metal style, yes I am weird but I heard that, most in an instrumental called Putrefaction of Trust. There are also some more gentle atmospheric parts like awesome Judgment Day, one of my personal favorites. Although it is hard to say which ones, I will say that Violent Faith, The Sacrifice and Ghost are my favorites. This is one of the top five melodic punk releases this year.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 